F.D.& E. SAE Standard Files (Proposal)

Introduction

The Fatigue Design and Evaluation Committee of the SAE
is experimenting
with standard file formats for various types of fatigue data.
The purpose of standard fatigue files is to allow easy interchange
of data between individuals, and, probably more importantly, between
individuals and programs. It would be useful for students or others
to be able to submit test data files to a website for processing; or
it they are ambitious, to tranform their research into new
algorithms that can process anyone's standard files. The results
would generate significant efficiencies for all of us involved
in the exchange and processing of fatigue information. In particular
it would help to alleviate the eternally vexing problem of file
conversions. Many many months of effort are wasted each year performing
data manipulations and file conversion, when our time would be better
spent on research of improved methods.

Examples of Standard Files

In the present case, a standard
file implies one of the new SAE/F.D.& E. standard files for
strain-life data, stress-strain data, or rainflow data. Each has a
specific, yet simple, format specified by FD&E or SAE. The user can
either create his own file with any text editor, or in many cases the
data may originate from a testing center or other supplier.
Here are some examples of standard files:

Note that each file is a simple text file. In each file there are comment
lines, which begin with a # in column_1, and data lines, which are
simply numbers. Some of the comment lines have a special meaning and are
in a form:

#Date= 1999 December 7

These are "picked-up" by software reading the file and can be used to tell the
software what the file type is, what processing is required, etc.

Many users might download all the available GNU licensed fatgiue software into their own
machines, compile the source (helps to prevent viruses) (viri?) and then run
the codes over their own locally located standard files. Many more users would
probably not wish to download and compile the software, and would prefer to submit
their files to some remote web server on their company web, or to a university
for processing. Such a submission can be easily done by adding a text "header" to
the front of the file, and a short "trailer" to the bottom of the file. The file
is then loaded or opened by the user's Netscape browser, and with a "click" on the
header button, the file is transmitted for processing. If all goes well, a page
will be returned to the user's browser, that contains the required graphs or
calculation results. Please read the file on
Calculation Wrappers
if you want more information on how to use this processing feature.